The mentioned invention relates to umbrellas, and particularly to an automatic folding umbrella. By such invention the umbrella user can easily and conveniently operate the umbrella with only one hand.
For conventional automatic umbrellas, the xe2x80x9cautomaticxe2x80x9d mechanism is only applicable when opening the umbrella, and will still require manual operation when retracting and folding the umbrella back to its rest position. In general, there are two types of umbrellas, one is stick umbrellas and the other is folding umbrellas. The stick umbrella can not be folded down and will stay the same shape and size before and after use. The folding umbrella will fully stretch out and open when use, but can be folded down afterwards. Comparing to stick umbrellas, the sizes of the folding umbrellas are about one third of the sizes of the sick umbrellas at the resting position, and thus does not occupy as much space.
Even though the folding umbrella provides some advantage over stick umbrella, it will still require two hands to retract and fold-down the umbrella. Such requirement has proven to be very inconvenient and troublesome when the user is operating the folding umbrella while carrying objects in hand at the same time. The user simply does not have both hands free and available to successfully operate the folding umbrella. Such circumstance can be very difficult and frustrating when carrying objects in hand while entering a car or indoor in a raining day.
Thereby, an automatic folding umbrella is developed such that the umbrella can be opened up and folded back automatically. However the current automatic folding umbrella mechanism can only close in the umbrella cover and ribs while the umbrella shafts (multiple shafts) are still extended. It will require manual operation of pressing down the multiple shafts so that the umbrella can be completely retracted back to its original resting position. If such step is not taken to restore the umbrella back to its original resting position, the automatic mechanism will lose its ability to perform the xe2x80x9cautomatic openingxe2x80x9d function in next usage. Thus, this design only posses ability to xe2x80x9cautoxe2x80x9d open, but xe2x80x9csemi autoxe2x80x9d close. It will still require manual operation to finish up the umbrella retracting step to full restore the umbrella back to its original resting position.
Based on the above mentioned facts, the objective of this invention is such that with single hand operation, one is capable of complete the cycle of operating an automatic umbrella from its resting position to the opening position, then retracting the open umbrella back to its original rest position.
The first objective of this invention is to provide a fully automatic folding umbrella. With single hand operation, one is capable of completing the cycle of operating an automatic umbrella from a rest position to an opening position, then retracting the open umbrella back to its original rest position. At the umbrella open position, the fully connected and extended multiple umbrella shafts can be retracted back to the size and position of single shaft. A push and brake device installed at the upper end of the middle shaft. The push and brake device includes a sleeve in the middle shaft. A push rod is in the sleeve, having an upper tapered head and a lower tapered head. An expandable spring is in the sleeve for ejecting the push rod. A pull line is installed between the push rod and a brake block of the control device. A buckle has a buckle ring at the lower end of the upper shaft buckle stud and an expandable spring are in the inner hole of buckle ring, wherein after the buckle stud passes through the holes of the upper shaft and the middle shaft, and then inserts into a guide groove in the push rod and between an upper tapered head and a lower tapered head.
The second objective of this invention is to provide a fully automatic folding umbrella. A special control device installed in the handle enables the user at the push of button on the umbrella handle, in a two-step procedure, to open and retract the umbrella. The umbrella will be fully retracted back to its original rest position without additional manual assistance. The control device in the handle includes a button at a groove of the handle, a brake block in the lower shaft, a spring installed in a guided groove of the handle for pushing the button backwards, and a contractible spring at a lower end of the brake block. The inner side of the button has a control ring passing through a radial groove. When the lower shaft passes through the axial straight hole of the handle, the control ring encloses a periphery of the lower shaft, and a front stopper and a rear stopper on the inner wall of the control ring passes through the two corresponding holes of the lower shaft. The rear stopper resists against an upper end of the brake block.
The third objective of this invention is to provide a fully automatic folding umbrella. A buckle serves for connecting the middle shaft and the lower shaft. The buckle includes a post stud installed in the lower shaft and a pulley installed in a post rod at the upper end of the post stud. An inserting stud for fixing the post stud to the lower shaft, and an elastic buckle piece is installed at the wall of the post stud. The inserting stud passes through a hole in the lower shaft, and then in inserted into the hole of the post stud. The pulley is a turning point of the pull line, and elastic buckling piece has a bead. The bead is buckled into the holes of the middle shaft and lower shaft.